What we are seeing right now is an ideological battle the likes we haven’t experienced since the Roger Douglas blitzkrieg.
It’s not being identified as an ideological battle because we are so numb to the status quo of agreed neoliberalism between National and Labour that we can’t see wood for trees.
The Rights ever increasing amputation of the State so that citizens no longer look to it for anything other than the provision and maintenance of core ownership rights never ceases.
National’s use of Big Data in welfare is designed to spend money only on the worst case scenarios so as to reduce universal provision of services. This is an example of the ever creeping disillusion of the State that drives the Right ideologically. They combine this with the reduction of taxes so that the State doesn’t have the money to spend in the first place.
The pandemic however has thrown the progress of this free market small government project out the window.
The inequalities generated by neoliberalism are now exposed in a way that the myths of hard work and rugged individualism can’t gloss over any longer.
The Right in NZ know that the neoliberal experiment will crash and burn if the sleepy hobbits rush to the Government to be protected by the State, so what do they propose?
Irresponsible Tax Cuts by National so the State can’t afford to protect and mass amputation of the State by ACT so the State has no capacity to protect.
How should Jacinda and Labour respond?
The reality is that we have been endangered at the border by lack of capacity. We need MORE state service workers, not less.
The New Zealand public sector employed around 348,000 people (known as public servants) as at 30 June 2017, about 13.8% of the country’s total workforce. The State sector employed around 295,800 people and local government had around 52,200 employees.
Maybe we need 600 000 public sector workers?
Maybe we need to fund essential workers and unionise them to protect their rights?
Maybe we need to hire vastly more people because the job market will collapse?
Maybe the future defined by external shocks requires vastly larger State?
This is the debate Jacinda and Labour must enter.
On top of better resourcing for the existing State and the removal of toxic cultures, we need a vast upgrade of more State, not less and Labour need to actually enter this debate because the Right have promised to irresponsibly damage it right when we need it most.
The Right’s desire to amputate is driven out of fear that NZers will demand the State protects them.
Labour needs to step up and protect them by expanding the State itself.
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I’m concerned about these upcoming leaders debates. Ardern is a superb speaker. Her support crew will have confidence in her so will just let her do her thing. As a result it will be Ardern v Collins and her divisive, desperate and incredibly selfish army. Collins will be getting input from MANY people including alleged journalists etc who are desperate to play “GOTCHA” with Ardern in the debates. If Ardern plays nice, it will be a fail. If she doesn’t give the comprehensive responses within the time restraints available, it may be seen as a victory for Collins.
The nature of this type of debate at this time will be attack attack attack by the despicable Collins and defend defend defend by Ardern. Not a good and constructive setting but one that will decide if Labour Govern alone and just how big of a wipe out the election will be for for Me Me Me Latrine Rodent Party….aka National.
I have every confidence in Ardern …..but this is most definitely not the setting or time for Ardern to play nice so I hope she is prepared to get in the gutter with Collins. If she doesn’t which is my only concern, she risks looking like an injured fawn surrounded by desperate hyenas.
Yes, and if Collins has any more Lees Galloway type “dumps”, this is when they will likely appear.
It may be similar to the infamous Nixon/Kennedy TV matchup in terms of visual appeal. Collins is looking more and more like a Bullfrog.
So wide of the mark, the thing to look forward to is a nation with a soul that is at peace with itself. New Zealand does not prosper by stealing other peoples children. That is the point of family court and high court rulings about disposition and injustice.
We are a multicultural island nation that has changed enormously in 6 months since the corona outbreak and now we have a tremendous opportunity because we are protected by the sea. We have some of the highest growth potential people in brown female entrepreneurs and so there are great opportunities here.
So to go forward as a nation means we all have to pull in the same direction on terms that we all agree, and to have a bunch of young brown mothers not agreeing because they are largely disadvantaged which means that we will not all pull completly.
You don’t need to worry, JF. Jacinda has led and is leading Aotearoa through some of our darkest days, and she will continue to do so.
you, national, listen to your generals. if you are wise you will tell your generals to turn and run.
Yes, well at the moment the narratives are: National -more roads and bigger roads, opening up the economy to ‘second wave’ and ‘third wave’ Covid-19, trashing the environment, and tax cuts. Labour -more roads and bigger roads, supporting floundering BAU even if it has no future, trashing the environment, and no tax cuts.
NOWHERE in any of the party’s policies is there ANYTHING that is sustainable.
So, if a potential voter were to vote for either of these parties, they are essentially voting for a collapsed environment and collapsed economy plus either:
1. a ‘Mad Max’ style everyone for himself/herself never-ending local resource war ending
OR
2. an end-of-the-Soviet-Union-style hanging on for grim death and hoping something better turns up ending.
Nowhere in sight is there anything remotely connected to the reality of the [metaphoricallly speaking] meltdown of global finance, the metaphorically speaking] meltdown of the energy sector, or the literal meltdown of the planet.
When there was still plenty of raw materials to loot, when it was possible to create money out of thin air and not cause a financial panic, when the environment was not so damaged it could still cope with human idiocy, the criminals and clowns and eco-vandals that made up parliament were able to con the masses into believing their outlandish narratives.
Not so much now.
Indeed, according to the Guardian report of a few days ago, New Zealanders put the environment ahead of Covid-19, and way ahead of the economy.
The politicians have a lot of catching up to do. And, judging by the performance so far, they are not going to make it.
The Internet is a fine thing, and it provides us with access to all sorts of information the politicians and aspiring politicians would prefer we did not know.
For instance:
‘In the US, the latest poll of consumer sentiment remains very negative year-on-year (-15%) but improved in September from August. Things are even more negative year-on-year about current economic conditions (-19%) but less so for future expectations (-12%).
The US Fed balance sheet is rising again, up +$54 bln in the last week to September 16 and the fastest rise in 15 weeks. In the period from mid-May to early July, it was well over $7 tln and then fell back steadily. Now it is back up sharply to US$7.06 tln. A rise like this indicates the Fed mandarins think their economy and financial system is in need of enhanced support.
The US Administration raised its agricultural subsidies overnight by another US$14 bln in what has been described a “vote-buying”.
Wall Street is sliding and now at a six week low. Prospects for economic support from Congressional fiscal action is fading fast as Republicans block any meaningful aid. Oddly Democrats, and now the Trump Administration seem willing to act.
In China, new official data claims that their digital economy accounted for over two-thirds of China’s GDP growth in 2019 from about one third of its economic activity.
In 2018, a data service reported 180,000 home foreclosures in China. In 2019 the same source reported 300,000. To the middle of September 2020 they are saying 1.25 mln homes were foreclosed on by banks in China as vast numbers of people struggled with meeting mortgage payments due to “deteriorating job prospects and shrinking income”. How credible the source is is up for conjecture, but it is part of the giant Alibaba service. You would think they would know.
In Japan, like everyone else, they are making no progress reigniting inflation, partly because of fiscal policies. Japan’s core consumer prices fell at their fastest pace in almost four years in August, dragged down mostly by government-sponsored discounts for domestic travel aimed at supporting the battered tourism sector. Now, also like everyone else, they are shifting the goalposts to include jobs growth as a core monetary policy mandate.
The latest data on iron ore prices suggests they may not only have topped out now, but be heading lower. It’s early days on such a conclusion, but we have had seven straight weeks of prices near modern high levels, but this week the range down is notable.
In Australia, which currently has about 1 mln unemployed, industrial action on the Sydney waterfront has the potential to add many more. Wharf workers are striking, and now major shipping lines are refusing to dock in the face of endless cargo unloading delays. See here and here. Diversion to Melbourne is a poor option because of limited operations there in their pandemic restrictions.
Of course, it is not all bad in Australia. Despite their recession, business is booming across farms amid drought breaking rains and rising commodity prices.
On Wall Street today, the S&P500 is down another sharp -1.1% in afternoon trade with losses that seem to be building. They are heading for a small -0.6% loss for the week or a loss of -US$173 bln in market capitalisation fro the week. Overnight, European markets closed lower by about -0.8%. Yesterday, Shanghai ended the day up a strong +2.1% with a late surge, Hong Kong was also got a late surge and was up +0.5% and Tokyo was ended up +0.2% on the day. For the week, these three markets posted changes of +2.4%, -0.2%, and -0.2% respectively. The ASX200 ended down -0.3% and unchanged for the week, while the NZX50 Capital Index fell sharply at the end of trading yesterday, down a sharp -1.2% and that cements in a -1.3% loss for the week.’
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/107123/us-sentiment-stays-low-new-higher-us-ag-subsidies-china-home-foreclosures-jump-japan
Sure, the ‘we’re on track for a brighter future’ clowns at TVNZ, NewsHub etc. keep up their happy-clappy narratives, just as happened with their equivalents in the 1930s, who five years after the wall Street Crash of ’29 were STILL in denial of reality and trying to talk up the economy.
Needless to say, we are far more fucked than the folk in the Great Depression, having bred like rabbits and gobbled up and burned most of the oil and buggered-up most of nature.
Anyone with a brain sees the criminals and clowns that attempt to get our attention on the goggle box as self-serving liars and time-wasters.
So yes, folks, we are on track for the biggest collapse in history, by far. And the timing still looks very much like the end of September to November.
Agreed Afewknowthetruth
We wrote to the press today about national being killed off by their fetish for roads and rads and roads all for more trucks policies as is the death nail for sure as no-one like trucks except for national
Read this;
“CEAC say National needs to own over truck use causing massive road cost & damages to NZ Highways”
Political press release – by Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre.
21st September 2020
RNZ article today featured https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018764779 ‘Truck crashes leave Auckland Harbour Bridge hobbled’ clearly shows the massive cost of damages many of our highways drains, bridges and road surfaces by overuse of freight trucks all over NZ as the National Party recklessly ramps up yet more pressure to increase truck use policies during the election to move freight around NZ, when simple switching more freight to rail would benefit us all.
The irony of Michael Barnett CEO of Auckland Business Chamber is only making things worse by calling for another plan for a tunnel to handle truck transport is poorly thought out, as the cost would exceed $30 Billion and take 10 years to build, and the NZTA senior journey manager Neil Walker said it right, “You can’t build your way out of it forever and we’re going to have to think smarter about how we try and manage demand on the roads, so that’s greater use of the likes of public transport and that sort of thing, particularly around the peak times.”
CEAC supports Government to ‘balance the freight between rail and road to reduce the high cost of damages to our highways and reduce the Paris climate emissions inventory policies signed by labour, which is now increasing as reported by Oxfam. https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/300109742/new-zealands-paris-emissions-reduction-target-inequitable-and-insufficient-oxfam-says
“Oxfam New Zealand says drastic cuts to emissions are needed by the end of the decade if New Zealand wants to play its part in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, Marc Daalder reports.
Oxfam New Zealand has blasted the Government’s emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement, saying it falls short of being consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees over the pre-industrial average and places an unfair burden on developing countries, including our Pacific neighbours, to reduce their own emissions.”
National must get real and deal with Climate change by reducing truck freight firstly and join the global efforts to reduce the effects of climate change as time runs out.
National’s two serious freight truck advocates Chris Bishop (National’s shadow spokesperson on transport) and Paul Goldsmith (National’s Finance spokesperson) must show leadership if they hope to win over the voters or languish on the opposition benches for years by repeatedly calling for ‘more roads and more roads policy’.
CEAC has many times on the looming environmental catastrophe approaching us, that National Party has not even mentioned this looming issue yet. This is abysmal;
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2007/S00419/national-are-their-own-enemy-roads-roads-roads-is-their-death-nail.htm
CEAC said in our several reviews of National’s ‘lacklustre environmental policies are “abysmal” as none even exist yet, so we encourage National to get real for our climate sake and return increased freight to rail.
…’It’s not being identified as an ideological battle because we are so numb to the status quo of agreed neoliberalism between National and Labour that we can’t see wood for trees. The Rights ever increasing amputation of the State so that citizens no longer look to it for anything other than the provision and maintenance of core ownership rights never ceases. National’s use of Big Data in welfare is designed to spend money only on the worst case scenarios so as to reduce universal provision of services. This is an example of the ever creeping disillusion of the State that drives the Right ideologically. They combine this with the reduction of taxes so that the State doesn’t have the money to spend in the first place’…
—————————————–
THIS , in a nutshell.
Firm believer in BIG Govt and a progressive income tax regime, And a Govt that REGULATES. It is time to take these neo liberal pirates to task and put them before our courts. Don’t laugh, it happened to Bernie Maddock and it can happen to them. The ringleaders. Starting with the political front of the Business Roundtable ( now called the NZ Initiative ) and working backwards to sniveller far right wing sympathizers CEO’s in govt depts.
TREASON TREASON TREASON TREASON
Heads need to roll in this country as a warning and example against treason, grand theft of the commons and subterfuge designed to facilitate foreign , offshore takeover of key infrastructure utility’s paid for by the taxpayers of NZ. And the subversion of NZ democracy . I could easily name a dozen of them right off the bat who should be behind bars right now yet who were in our parliament and now walk free making even more money out of Kiwi battlers.
They say lampposts and ropes come in handy for certain things…like in a power outage…
Lol. How cute that People still think Jacinda and Grant care outside of Labour self interest.
Corona is a mildly complex issue but it is The National Party blatant self interests that is at fault here.
Frank the Blank,
After 9 excruciating years of the vomit-inducing National party that treated huge numbers of kiwis like the despised feral enemy they couldn’t possibly care less about, it’s not surprising that so many ignorant bellends don’t know what caring about all people actually looks like despite all the evidence Ardern and Robertson have gifted them.
Frank – how about a change of tactic. How about you apply your mega critical partisan lens to, I dunno….the National party maybe? Pretty sure your barbs will find some exact matches. But that would mean removing your eye patch.
Oh you’ll find I have significant disdain for a lot of what National does and did. I’m no Key/English fanboy. In fact I’d agree you are going to find out exactly what I found out during Key’s second term – as long as their political party is in change – zero fucks given.
Have a look at Labour’s pledges on child pover(d)y, light rail and kiwibuild. As I said zero fucks given as long as you control the beehive.
The way Martyn describes his ideal State run existence is a country of state employees paid for by the state (us). And we let them design our lives for us. They will would give us our money when we need it, they will house us( supposedly) and make sure we share our earnings ( not get too wealthy. I’m not sure who actually generates the money required because the State doesn’t make money, it spends yours. So our choice is right wing, who want you to stand on your own two feet and spend money you have earned yourself ( but have got it badly wrong) or something similar to what China had under Mao. To me the answer lies in the middle which brings us back to where we are which doesn’t work unless we use the business skills of the right and the social skills of the left. We know the neoliberal model doesn’t work but they both still persist with it. Sad really.
It worked back in the 50’s. 60’s and 70’s.
Wild Katipo
Yes it is time for labour to return us to egalitarianism again as we are all hurting more than the 1930’s folks did during the 21930’s as they could still mix and mingle where we are trapped by Covid 19.
We are at a time of massive change and Labour needs to return us to government cover to shield us against this new age again.
return us to egalitarianism
The Greens Poverty Action Plan would go a long way to doing this, if given a chance.
However the current Greens Leadership are in some ways sabotaging the party from within. Shaw’s handing over Question Time to the Nats, to Collins, Bennett, Foulloon et al, giving them many more questions than they were entitled to while depriving Green MPs of a voice, seems like a criminal act. It is a form of Dirty Politics. Did he even have the authority to do that, particularly when the Co-Leader had not even been decided on at that time. Shaw has to go.
Spot on Kheala. The tragedy is the Greens have the best policies out of all the political parties but may not make it back to implement some of them. Chloe is the future leader of the Greens and will have to spend the next three years to save the party and connect with a good ten or twelve percent of support that is out there and Chloe is the one to lead them back. The environment and other issues need to be addressed with a strong Green party to advocate for them in parliament and government. The environment will be the big loser if the Greens don’t make it back.
Mosa, Yes, their most recent policy releases have been excellent, including yesterday’s Ocean Protections .
And if the Greens are not returned, who else is going to bring out these policies? So, yes, we do need them there.
You should examine your own ambition for change rather than worrying about others including such things as a fundamental examination about why the greens party vote has been declining for 7 successive elections.
Martyn it amazes me that you can’t see that the man who wants to return to the egalitarian times, created by Savage and Fraser, enhanced by Holland and Holyoake, is Winston Peters.
His dream is to return to the “best of times” the days of his youth the 50’s and 60’s. He actually wants what you want!
Martyn it amazes me that you can’t see that the man who wants to return to the egalitarian times, created by Savage and Fraser, enhanced by Holland and Holyoake, is Winston Peters.
His dream is to return to the “best of times” the days of his youth the 50’s and 60’s. He actually wants what you want!
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